eBay Contextual Ads Can Be a Bit Too Graphic

eBay launched eBay AdContext a while back and ShoeMoney is currently running those ads on his blog. When I went to his site yesterday, I notice that one of the ads (aka listings) had a racy image of a woman in a bikini (or at leas that is what the ad implied). You can see a screen capture of the ad here.

The ad was contextually relevant, in terms of the service selling web site submission services on a site mostly SEO related. But the image the eBay seller uploaded with his listing, was not contextually related to the ad, nor the site audience.

Should eBay allow merchants to control those images? I think they have no choice in that matter.

Should eBay display those images in the contextual ads? I think they are taking a huge risk by doing so.